Spain

The SPANISH EMPIRE expanded rapidly in the Western Hemisphere and gained control of all of Central and South America except Brazil. Despite setbacks in Europe, Spain's overseas empire remained intact as the largest in the Western Hemisphere. The Spanish Inquisition was independent of the Medieval Inquisition. It was established by Ferdinand and Isabella with the reluctant approval of Sixtus IV. It was entirely controlled by the Spanish kings, and the pope's only hold over it was in naming the inquisitor general chosen by the kings. The popes were never reconciled to the institution, which they regarded as usurping a church prerogative. The treasure fleet across the Atlantic and the Manila galleons across the Pacific made it the wealthiest and most powerful nation in Europe, but the rapidly rising influx of silver and gold from the colonies in the Americas in the last decades of the 16th century ultimately resulted in economically damaging rampant inflation and led to economic depression by the 17th century. Religious and dynastic wars supported by the Spanish crown, especially in the Netherlands, also greatly burdened the empire's economy.